


Don't Bring A Gun To A Knife Fight

by yourvintagemisery



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23666083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourvintagemisery/pseuds/yourvintagemisery
Summary: “Let me guess.  I should see the other guy?”  With a tilt of her head, Spears stopped slicing and responded.  “No, that line’s only for people who lose the fight.”
Relationships: FP Jones II/Original Female Character(s), FP Jones II/Reader, Sweet Pea (Riverdale)/Original Female Character(s), Sweet Pea (Riverdale)/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Afternoon Delight

“I don’t know, kid. Go talk to Spears about it.” Tall Boy waved in the general direction of the bar and went back to his conversation with Venom.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Fangs looked across the room. He knew of Spears by reputation only. Sure, he’d seen her hanging around the bar and taking on some of the older Serpents in darts, but the only thing they seemed to have in common was the leather jackets that united them all.  
  
She was their resident knives expert, but her wit was as definitely as sharp as her blades. Spears was a bit older than him but had come back to the Southside after finishing college a few years ago. Being 26, in better shape than most of the gang combined and with nothing to lose, she was indispensable to the Serpents.  
  
Exhaling, Fangs started his descent down the stairs. This would be the first conversation they would share, and he didn’t want to bother her with something so trivial as a broken switchblade, but after Tall Boy’s dismissal he wasn’t sure what else he could do.  
  
Looking across the room, he spotted her straight away. She was hard to miss, sitting on top of the bar, one foot perched on a stool, the other swinging loosely and brushing FP’s denim clad leg lightly. She flicked her own small butterfly knife open and closed, manipulating it in her hands whilst they were deep in conversation. Never even looking down once, she just kept her eyes on the Serpent King whilst the knife clicked opened and closed.   
  
They were close, Spears was frequently seen alongside FP and Tall Boy, deliberating strategies, keeping everyone in line, but she wasn’t exactly straight and narrow. From what Fangs heard she constantly challenged the members, challenged the leadership and never took no for answer. She was reckless, she was dangerous, she was a force to be reckoned with. Spears was _the_ Angel of darkness.  
  
“Can I help you?” the knife still clicked.  
  
“Um, yeah.” Fangs eyes darted between FP and Spears and took a deep breath.  
  
 _Open. Closed. Open. Closed._  
  
“My knife is stuck. Tall Boy told me you could help me out?” feeling the blush crawl from the back of his neck to his face, he shuffled slightly on his feet.  
  
Spears rolled her eyes and held out her hand for knife, rolling her eyes as Fangs fumbled for it out of his pocket. Placing it gently in her outstretched palm, she inspected it slowly. Brushing her fingers along the steel of the handle, she licked her thumb and wiped some of the grime away. A condescending smile pulled at her lips.  
  
“What kind of knife is this?”  
  
Fangs mouth dropped open, “um, a switchblade?”  
  
FP smirked, looking at back Spears. With an arched brow, she threw the blade back to Fangs.  
  
“Oh, good! So, you _do_ know that it’s not a dessert knife!”  
  
With that, she lifted her feet and twisted around on top the bar before dropping down on the other side.  
  
“Maybe if you cleaned the cake off it every once in a while, you won’t have a blade that gets stuck.”  
  
Fangs skin burned white hot. There were a few chuckles from the surrounding tables, but what cut him the most deeply was the amused smile that stretched across FP’s face. He could feel his pride seeping out of his body and fill with embarrassment instead. Mumbling a quick thanks, he turned ready to hastily remove himself from the bar.  
  
“Hey, Afternoon Delight!” Spears called after him, “don’t waste my time again.”  
  
Nodding, he all but ran out of the Wyrm, eager to escape the raucous laughter and hoping that Sweet Pea and Toni didn’t hear about this from somebody else.  
  
As soon as the doors swung shut FP turned in his chair, picking up the newly placed drink in front of him. Swirling the ice cubes around inside the tumbler he watched Spears work behind the bar. She moved swiftly, wiping down glasses, removing the caps from beer bottles, serving everyone with a (fake) smile.  
  
Noticing his gaze, she sent him a wink from the other end of the bar.  
  
With a grin, he downed his drink, never tearing his eyes away from her.


	2. You Will Beg

Sweet Pea picked up his pool cue and surveyed the bar. A lot of new patrons had been making their way over from Greendale in the last few months and the Wyrm was reaping the benefits. It was a busy night and it was easy to get lost in the crowd but still, he always noticed the little things. The small exchanges these drunk dumbasses thought nobody else saw; a dime bag slipping between fingers, a wad of cash in a deeply exaggerated handshake, the sly looks between Spears and FP. He rolled his eyes.  
  
That had been happening for a while now and Sweet Pea was pretty sure nobody else had picked up on it yet. The hushed conversations between them, the midnight “meetings” in FP’s trailer. (If these meetings were supposed to be secret, they were not being overly covert about it as Spears’ squeaky trailer door opened every night around midnight and FP’s always slammed shut 30 seconds later.) He wasn’t sure if it had started when Spears came back from college (unannounced, sporting a bloody nose and black eye) or sometime after. Either way, he was proud that he finally had some useful information at his disposal.  
  
Spears was behind the bar tonight with Hog Eye, wiping sweat off her brow as she pulled the lever to fill another jug of beer for the rowdy crowd. He watched a bead of sweat roll down her neck and took a deep breath. The room was starting to fill with a suffocating amount of people even though it was still early in the evening. Fangs cleared his throat and Sweet Pea tore his eyes away from Spears’ curves in the all too tight tank top she was wearing and brought his attention back to the pool table in front of him. Fangs gestured for him to break and Sweet Pea walked to the end of the table, lining up his shot.  
  
As he slid the cue forward he couldn’t help but be reminded of when Spears first walked through the doors since making her return back to Riverdale. It had been a night just like this, playing pool with Fangs, the bar full of drunken gang members, and the heat in the room stifling. His eyes had widened with surprise when a girl who reminded him of someone who he used to see around the South side had limped through the room, shoving some of the burlier men to the side to move through despite clearly being in pain.  
  
Stopping at FP’s table, she had slammed a pair of car keys down in front of him and stared at their leader silently. Sweet Pea remembered waiting for the commotion to start, the shouts of vengeance. It didn’t usually take much for the older members to get riled up. Instead, FP silently picked up the keys and walked out the front doors. Then, the girl was ushered upstairs by some of the bar staff to help clean her up. Neither of them returned for the rest of the night and he remembered thinking even then, covered in blood and dirt, looking like hell, she was still beautiful.  
  
The next morning, the girl, whose name was Spears as Sweet Pea was later reminded, was mostly cleaned up and in the middle of training behind the bar with Hog Eye. Her black eye was swollen shut and her knuckles crusted over with fresh scabs. She wore a t-shirt entirely too big for her small frame and he doubted it to even be hers. The collar hung loosely around her neck and the faint bruises unmistakably in the shape of fingerprints around her throat were exposed.   
  
With her hair tied up and off her face, Sweet Pea could see that her right ear held the red tinge of dried blood not completely washed away. She looked like shit and he couldn’t understand why the Wyrm basement didn’t have the asshole who did this to her tied to a chair and beaten to within an inch of his life. He couldn’t think of any reason why someone would hurt this girl so severely.  
  
Watching as Hog Eye disappeared behind the bar and finally leaving her alone, Sweet Pea looked around. He made note of the fact that he was one of the only people in the room and decided to seize the opportunity whilst it was in front of him. He abruptly got up from his table, loudly knocking the cutlery off his plate in the process and quickly made his way over to Spears.  
  
He rested one arm against the bar, the other sliding into the back pocket his jeans. He watched her for a moment as she continued to slice limes into quarters, dropping them into the plastic container in front of her. Spears opened her mouth to finally acknowledge him, but Sweet Pea cut her off quickly with a shit eating grin.  
  
“Let me guess. I should see the other guy?”  
  
With a tilt of her head, Spears stopped slicing and responded.   
  
“No, that line’s only for people who lose the fight.”  
  
“So, this is what a winner looks like then?” Sweet Pea let out of a soft laugh “Jeez, I wouldn’t wanna be on your team.”  
  
He let out a hearty chuckle not noticing the darkness beginning to swarm in Spears eyes. Without taking her eyes off him, she moved in what felt like lightning fast precision. Grabbing his hand resting along the bar, Spears slammed down the chef’s knife she’d been using between his index and middle fingers, nicking the webbing in the middle of them. Blood slowly trickled out and the citrus on the blade stung as it pressed against his open flesh. Sweet Pea stopped laughing.  
  
“Trust me, kid. When the time comes, you will beg to be on my team.”  
  
As she eased the knife out of the wooden bar top and let go of his hand, Sweet Pea noticed the fresh scabs and burn marks encasing her wrists. Looking into her eyes, he nodded and cautiously pulled his hand away, inspecting the gash between his fingers. This girl, no, this _woman_ , had rendered him completely speechless. Was it wrong for him to be this turned on?  
  
Dropping a few bills on the bar to cover his breakfast, along with a few extra for his tip, he exited the bar then began the walk across the street to the Serpents auto shop. FP had encouraged the younger recruits to spend a lot of their time there as it was an easy place to earn some legitimate money and it kept them mostly out of trouble.   
  
Sweet Pea was looking forward to getting in a few hours working on some engines in peace before all the senior members started to arrive and bitch and moan about how hungover they were. He could hopefully get in a few hours of not thinking about Spears grabbing his hand and how he wished that maybe in the future she could grab something else.  
  
As he moved closer to the entrance of the shop, he could hear the tell-tale sounds of the garage operating in full swing. The voices of the usual Sunday crew were loud over the blaring radio. It wasn’t very often that the whole team would be in so early after a big night out, so he figured that most of them probably hadn’t actually made it home yet.   
  
With a deep sigh, he realised his quiet morning was shot to hell and he would probably be fighting for an open bay to work on his engines. He just hoped that there were no prissy North side moms waiting around, watching his every move as he worked on their precious SUV’s.  
  
Reaching down, he gripped the bottom of the roller door and started lifting. After barely raising it up a foot off the ground, the door was roughly pushed down out of his hands. Swearing under his breath, Sweet Pea reached down to pull it back up again, but this time it didn’t budge, and the heavy click of the lock sounded. Brows furrowing with confusion, Sweet Pea straightened up and made his way around the building to the back entrance.   
  
Finding the door unlocked, he moved inside and saw what seemed to be every senior Serpent working. Standing back, eyes wide, he watched as they moved together in sync, dismantling a car that he was positive didn’t belong around these parts.   
  
Not only did Aston Martin’s not belong in Riverdale, they also didn’t belong in Greendale, or anywhere near Rockland County. They most especially did not belong on the South side, in the Serpent garage, being stripped for parts.  
  
As Venom hurriedly detached the steering wheel, Sweet Pea noticed the smeared blood contaminating the white leather. Moving closer to the car, he could see the gear stick and the front driver’s seat coated in the same red stains. The front passenger side door had already been removed and Sweet Pea noticed what looked like burnt leather hand restraints inside, laying on the floor. The image of Spears marred wrists and bloodied face flashed to the forefront of his mind. As he inched closer for a better look, a rough hand yanked his collar, pulling him back and dragging him out the back door again.   
  
He was shoved outside, the gravel crunching under his boots, with a gruff “there’s no work today, get outta here” by FP who stood by the back door, blocking him from re-entering the building.   
  
Sweet Pea gestured towards the door,   
  
“It sure looks like there’s work! What the hell was that?!”  
  
“This doesn’t concern you, boy!”  
  
Stunned and bewildered, Sweet Pea exhaled sharply. Before he could make another retort, a black town car began to slowly reverse up to the auto shops back door. Once stopped and an elderly chauffeur stepped out of the driver’s seat. Walking around the car, he opened the back door to help his passenger out before sitting back down inside the car again, giving the group privacy.   
  
Sweet Pea watched as a man whose entire look screamed that he was from the North side and very well off stepped out of the vehicle. He wore a perfectly fitted blue suit, newly shined shoes and there was not a single hair out of place.  
  
“Good morning, Mr Jones” the man pulled a yellow envelope out of his jacket pocket and threw it towards FP with distain, “I’m here to get my oil changed.”  
  
Sweet Pea watched silently as the envelope was opened and the cash inside was counted. As FP continued to count the bills, Sweet Pea realised that this would be no ordinary oil change. Looking across the lot, the fancy man walked to the back of the car and opened up the trunk.  
  
“This won’t take long, will it?”  
  
Swearing under his breath, FP quietly excused himself and Sweet Pea and went back inside the building, returning his grip onto Sweet Pea’s collar along the way. As the door slammed behind them, FP shoved Sweet Pea towards Venom causing him to stumble over his feet slightly. He was put to work with the rest of the men and told to help with whatever was needed and to work quickly before FP turned away and started to bark out orders to the rest of the room. Apparently, the man in the suit had quite the shopping list of the parts he required and the Serpents all quickly started to box up everything requested.  
  
For the next 2 hours, Sweet Pea silently worked his way through scrubbing down each of the parts that landed on the table in front of him. He cleaned away any fingerprints, oil and blood that had dried onto the radio and some of the smaller items. Taking apart engines and cleaning them had always been therapeutic to him, so at least he had some experience at this task and knew what he was doing as the guys continued dumping boxes in front of him. Although, Sweet Pea had never been in a situation like this where he was constantly being screamed at to work faster and to work harder. If he wasn’t so nervous by the heavy tension in the room, he would be screaming right back at them.  
  
As the morning went on, more well-to-do clients came for their “oil change”, discretely handing FP envelopes and leaving with trunks full of their newly refurbished car parts. There was no time to stop and think about what would become of the growing pile of cash stacked up on the office desk.   
  
By the time lunch rolled around, Sweet Pea felt like his arms were going to fall off and his legs would give way from underneath him. The men all worked loudly together, pushing to get everything done as fast as they could. It was one of the more stressful days he’d had in the garage, the complete opposite to the kind of day he was hoping to have. For the first time in his life, he was looking forward to being able to sit down alone somewhere in complete silence.  
  
Once the garage was bleached down to hide any evidence of the apparent stolen vehicle, the group all moved back across the street to the Whyte Wyrm. Sweet Pea trudged behind slowly and slid into his usual booth, stretching his legs out underneath the table. Looking over at the bar, Spears was filling jugs of beer and placing them down onto black trays lining the bar top. He looked down at his hand to inspect the scab that had formed between his fingers. Had it really only been a few hours since he was last here?  
  
FP was the last of their group to enter through the doors, stalking straight over to Spears. He dropped the car keys down in front of her, the distinct silver of the Aston Martin logo glinting against the fluorescent lighting, along with a very thick envelope.  
  
Her fingernails scrapped against the woodgrain as she snatched the items, shoving them deep down inside her apron pocket. Turning back to the bar, she grabbed some glasses and placed them next to the already filled jugs. It was as if she was pretending she wasn’t holding onto potentially thousands of dollars in blood money. No words were exchanged between the two, not even a grateful smile. Confusion swirled inside Sweet Pea once more.  
  
A week later, Sweet Pea was holed up in bed resting after his final Serpent challenge. After crawling his way through the ranks the last few years, FP suddenly thrust him through all four rounds of initiation in the last few days. His mom wasn’t too happy with him about Hot Dog becoming their new roommate in the already too small trailer, but by joining the Serpents, he’d be able to help provide for their family. They could even get a nicer trailer, maybe one with heat once the money started rolling in.  
  
Tonight, he had finally passed the gauntlet, the youngest pledge ever to do so, and was now officially a member of the Serpents. His brand-new leather cut hung off the back of the desk chair in his room and he smiled at it proudly, even though he didn’t feel like much of a winner right now. Together with his ribs aching from every shallow breath and his lip splitting open with each sip of his celebratory beer that Fangs had snuck past his mom.  
  
Stretching out in his bed more, Sweet Pea wondered where Hot Dog had disappeared to. He hadn’t seen him all night and normally by now the mangy mutt was whining at the bottom of his bed to be let up to sleep on the soft mattress.   
  
Looking out the window, Sunnyside was mostly dark, illuminated by a single streetlight. The view had remained mostly the same his whole life. The gravel footpaths that crunched loudly no matter how softly you stepped on them, always alerting his mom that he was sneaking out. The stairs leading up to FP’s porch were still decrepit and downright dangerous to walk on (unless you liked having your foot fall through the stairs and splinters slicing into your fingers from the handrail).   
  
The vacant trailer directly across from him was still musty with grass growing through the roof, although what was missing was the old, rotted “FOR SALE” sign. Sitting upright more, he noticed in its place was a shiny, new red plaque that read “SOLD”. It hung proudly from the crumbling wood frame of the windowsill and Sweet Pea screwed his nose up. He can’t imagine why anyone would want to buy such an amazing piece of prime real estate, he thought sarcastically.  
  
Suddenly the front door to the no longer abandoned trailer opened with a loud squeak. Light from inside poured out into the darkness and a male figure, judging by the broadness of their shoulders and the short, greying hair, stepped out.   
  
The identity of the man Sweet Pea immediately realized to be FP as the streetlight shone directly onto the back of his jacket. The King had his own Serpent symbol, the double headed snake. Curiosity getting the best of Sweet Pea, he tried to sit up further. Only FP and his family, the heirs to the Serpent throne, could wear this symbol and Sweet Pea very much doubted FP’s scrawny kid had recently joined the gang.  
  
In fact, the last that Sweet Pea had heard, Jughead was living at the Drive-In over on the North side. Another Serpent, Joaquin, had apparently been keeping an eye on him for FP. Sure, Sunnyside wasn’t much better than the old smelly drive-in, but Sweet Pea knew he’d choose honour to his family and a leaky trailer over being homeless.  
  
FP leaned down to embrace whoever was still inside the trailer. As he pulled back, Sweet Pea could see the unmistakable beaten and bruised face that belonged to Spears. As she closed the door after FP had stepped away, it squeaked loudly again. He wondered if it would be stupid for him to go there tomorrow with some WD-40? Maybe he could stay for dinner and then they could take their clothes off and compare battle scars. Maybe more.  
  
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he began to lay back down in his bed. As he fluffed his pillow, Hot Dog’s sharp bark echoed across the lot. Sitting up, he watched the dog sit patiently at Spears door, waiting to be let inside. _Traitor_. Soon, the door opened a crack and the dog trotted on through, tail wagging. The door closed again, and the heavy sound of the deadbolt locking reverberated across the night.  
  
So, the Riverdale South side had gained a hot new resident and she lived directly across from him. _Fuck_.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a solid decade since I last wrote fanfiction and BOY has a lot changed. I watched Riverdale religiously when the first season aired, but it lost me during season 2. Now here we are a few years later and nostalgia has brought me back.
> 
> At this stage, this will be a WIP as I'm not sure what direction I want it to go, but what I did want was more representation of the older Serpents, some my own age. I haven't seen the entire show and I'm not sure if I will, but I do think these characters are pretty amazing and I really wish they'd done more with them (here's looking at you, Sweet Pea.)
> 
> I don't have an editor/beta, so I'd really love any form of constructive criticism. Writing isn't my job or even in my field, but I do love a good creative outlet.
> 
> Stay safe out there and stay gold, Ponyboy.


End file.
